Veteran Wins His Battle Over Flag

The same homeowners association that threatened to take legal action against Army Col. Van T. Barfoot, of Richmond, VA., has dropped its request for him to remove a 21 foot flag pole displaying the American flag. The association told Barfoot that his 21 foot flagpole violated the neighborhood's "aesthetic guidelines".

The 90-year-old Medal of Honor winner was backed by the Democratic Senators from Virginia Mark Warner and Jim Webb. In a letter last week, to the homeowners association, Senator Jim Webb urged the association to "consider the exceptional nature of Col. Barefoots service when considering his pride and determination in honoring out flag."

Not only has Army Col. Van T. Barefoot had the two Virginia senators supporting him but has been backed by veteran's organizations, blog sites, and most television stations across America and some parts of the world. Facebook even had a link titled "Let Col. Barefoot Fly the American Flag." FOX News reported 97% in favor of KEEPING the American flag.

Good for Army Col. Barefoot, who won the Medal of Honor in 1944, the Purple Heart along with other decorations since his retirement from the military in 1974.

A true American Hero! Ninety years old and still winning battles!!!

Soldier Surprises Virginia Beach Girl Scouts

Army Specialist Andrew Dickey had no idea he would be receiving a standing ovation from a group of local girl scouts - especially since he's in town to say thank you to them.

The young girls in Virginia Beach troop 436 and troop 568 collected more than 200 boxes of girl scout cookies and shipped them all to Specialist Dickey and his troop in Iraq.

"The troops do so much for us and we never want to make them feel like they are unappreciated," one girl scout said.

Specialist Dickey just got home from deployment two weeks ago, and to let the girls know their act of kindness didn't go unnoticed, he surprised them at their holiday party with pizza and drinks.

"They did something for us and we usually don't get stuff like that, the least we can do is throw them a pizza party, say thank you for what they did for us," Dickey said.

The girls were very pleased with the pleasant surprise from Dickey.

"I thought it was good because it was special because it was a soldier from Iraq that came," said Haley Maydak, a girl scout.

"We are so proud that they are out there protecting the U.S.A., and it's because of them that we can be free."

The girl scout support for our troops doesn't end with cookies - right now they are making cards to send to troops serving overseas.

http://wtkr.com

Holiday Mail for Heroes makes it easy

For the third consecutive year, the Red Cross and Pitney Bowes are joining forces to send seasonal cheer to soldiers, veterans and their families during the holiday season through the Holiday Mail for Heroes program.

Holiday Mail for Heroes makes it easy for all of us to say "Thanks!" and "We're thinking of you!" to these brave Americans, particularly to the millions of soldiers, like my brother-in-law Chris (aka "Sgt. McHottie") and his team, the ODA 7315, who will be overseas and away from our families during the holidays.

Here's how it works:

1. Between now and the cut-off date of Monday, December 7th, you send a card to:

Holiday Mail for Heroes
P.O. Box 5456
Capitol Heights, MD 20791-5456

2. Pitney Bowes screens the cards to make sure they're safe (no hazardous materials) and forwards them to participating Red Cross chapters nationwide.

3. The Red Cross sorts and reviews the cards, and distributes them to service members, their families and veterans

It's so easy you could fit it in with your errands today!

They do have some basic rules:

• Sign all cards.
• Address them to "Dear Service Member, Family or Veteran."
• There's a limit of 15 cards per person or 50 for a school class or business group.
• Please bundle groups of cards in single, large envelopes.

To keep the program streamlined, safe and consistent, they ask that you not:

• Send letters.
• Include personal information such as home or email addresses.
• Use glitter because it can aggravate the wounds of hurt soldiers.
• Include inserts of any kind -- they'll be removed in the screening process.

According to the Red Cross, there are over 1.4 million men and women serving in the U.S. armed forces, and over 24 million veterans. This is the perfect way to thank them, and their families, for serving their country, with a holiday greeting!

VIA

Shooter advised Obama transition; Fort Hood

Fort Hood triggerman aided team on Homeland Security task force

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the alleged shooter in yesterday's massacre at Fort Hood, played a homeland security

advisory role in President Barack Obama's transition into the White House, according to a key university policy institute document.

The Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University

published a document May 19, entitled "Thinking Anew – Security Priorities for the Next Administration: Proceedings Report of the HSPI Presidential Transition Task Force, April 2008 – January 2009," in which Hasan of the Uniformed Services University School of Medicine

is listed on page 29 of the document as a Task Force Event Participant.

Hasan received his medical degree from the military's Uniformed Services University School in Bethesda, Md., in 2001.

Noting that the Obama administration transition was proceeding, the GWU Homeland Security Policy Institute report described on the first page the role of the Presidential Transition Task Force as including "representatives from past Administrations, State government, Fortune 500 companies, academia, research institutions and non-governmental organizations with global reach."

While the GWU task force participants included several members of government, including representatives of the Department of Justice and the U.S Department of Homeland Security, there is no indication in the document that the group played any formal role in the official Obama transition, other than to serve in a university-based advisory capacity.

Daniel Kaniewski, deputy director of the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University affirmed to WND in a telephone interview this morning that the Nidal Hasan listed as attending the meetings of the HSPI Presidential Transition Task Force was the same person as the alleged shooter in the Fort Hood massacre.

Kaniewski said Hasan attended the meetings in his capacity as a member of the faculty of the Uniformed Services University School of Medicine, not as a member of the HSPI Presidential Task Force.

Kaniewski believed Hasan applied on the institute's website to attend the meeting and was accepted because of his professional credentials.

Kaniewski could not tell WND whether or not Hasan made comments from the audience that influenced the task force recommendations or not.

He further confirmed Hasan had attended several meetings held by the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University and that the institute is currently searching conference records to see if it is possible to determine what additional institute conferences he attended.

Read More HERE

Massacre at Fort Hood

All the MSM is talking about is the Muslim shooter at Fort Hood, to hell with him... un-plug him and let Allah have him.

All I can think about is the American hero's and their families that he took out in a crazy shooting spree that took place because he couldn't have things 'his way'.

Hasan, was accepted, very well educated, and trained by our military only to turn that training against those that gave him the freedom to do so. Death is not good enough for him.

When will people wake-up to see that the muslim religion is not a "religion of peace" in-fact it's just the opposite. When a religion can and 'does' preach of killing those that will not convert to islam (even a family member) and they will be rewarded by taking this action (and they do) none of them can be trusted; And none should be 'trained' to make that task easier.

I just hope if he makes it, he will have a prompt meeting with the firing squad, his virgins await him.

Bless those he harmed and the families of those he murdered in cold blood that had the courage to fight for even his freedom.



May God have no mercy on Hasans soul.


On top of that, as I type this... The POS POTUS is on TV and he mentioned this mass murder for about 10 seconds and then went into to the "I" "me" what I have done BS.. he's one of them.

As many as 9 killed in Fort Hood shootings, officials say

Two gunmen in military uniforms shot and killed as many as nine people and wounded as many as 20 at Fort Hood in Texas on Thursday, officials said.

One of the shooters has been apprehended, Fort Hood spokesman Sgt. Maj. Jamie Posten told CNN.

"At this point we're looking for the other shooter," Posten said. Asked for a description, he said, "we're trying to develop that information."

The shooters were wearing military uniforms, but it was unclear whether they were soldiers, said U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas.

Watch Live Delvelopments Here

One of the gunmen was shot and wounded by military police, Hutchinson told CNN. She said she got her information from a general on the base.

Rep. John Carter, R-Texas, said between 20 and 30 were wounded.

President Obama has been informed of the incident, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters.

Officials at Fort Hood, which is the Army's largest U.S. post, were asking people there to stay away from windows, CNN affiliate KXXV said. The incident took place at the sports dome, now known as the soldier readiness area, the station reported.

FBI agents are headed to the scene to assist, said Erik Vasys, spokesman for the FBI office in San Antonio. He had no other details.

On the Fort Hood Web site, the word "closed" is posted with the statement, "Effective immediately, Fort Hood is closed. Organizations/units are instructed to execute a 100 percent accountability of all personnel."

Fort Hood, with about 40,000 troops, is home to the Army's 1st Cavalry Division and elements of the 4th Infantry Division, as well as the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and the 13th Corps Support Command. It is located near Killeen, Texas.

At least 25,000 people are at Fort Hood on any given day, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon said.

Fort Hood is home to the Warrior Combat Stress Reset Program, which is designed to help soldiers overcome combat stress issues.

VIA

Obama Reinstates "Death Book" For US Veterans of War

President Bush suspended the veteran's "death books" last year.
Unfortunately, Barack Obama reinstated the practice for veterans.

Is it really worth it?

The book asks veterans to decide whether their own life would be "not worth living" under certain guilt inducing scenarios.
The Wall Street Journal reported:

If President Obama wants to better understand why America's discomfort with end-of-life discussions threatens to derail his health-care reform, he might begin with his own Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). He will quickly discover how government bureaucrats are greasing the slippery slope that can start with cost containment but quickly become a systematic denial of care.

Last year, bureaucrats at the VA's National Center for Ethics in Health Care advocated a 52-page end-of-life planning document, "Your Life, Your Choices." (pdf) It was first published in 1997 and later promoted as the VA's preferred living will throughout its vast network of hospitals and nursing homes. After the Bush White House took a look at how this document was treating complex health and moral issues, the VA suspended its use. Unfortunately, under President Obama, the VA has now resuscitated "Your Life, Your Choices."

Who is the primary author of this workbook? Dr. Robert Pearlman, chief of ethics evaluation for the center, a man who in 1996 advocated for physician-assisted suicide in Vacco v. Quill before the U.S. Supreme Court and is known for his support of health-care rationing.

"Your Life, Your Choices" presents end-of-life choices in a way aimed at steering users toward predetermined conclusions, much like a political "push poll." For example, a worksheet on page 21 lists various scenarios and asks users to then decide whether their own life would be "not worth living."

The circumstances listed include ones common among the elderly and disabled: living in a nursing home, being in a wheelchair and not being able to "shake the blues." There is a section which provocatively asks, "Have you ever heard anyone say, 'If I'm a vegetable, pull the plug'?" There also are guilt-inducing scenarios such as "I can no longer contribute to my family's well being," "I am a severe financial burden on my family" and that the vet's situation "causes severe emotional burden for my family."

Page 21 of the book asks: "What makes my life worth living?"



But, don't worry seniors... You have nothing to worry about with Obamacare.
Skip the surgery. Take a pain pill instead.


VIA

Cindy Sheehan Targets Obama's Vacation

Sheeeee's Baaaaack.

It wouldn't be an official presidential summer vacation without her. Cindy Sheehan is going to follow President Barack Obama to Martha's Vineyard.

The "peace mom," who famously protested the Iraq war by camping out near President George W. Bush's Texas ranch during his vacations, plans to arrive on the island Aug. 25 -- two days after the first family gets there. Sheehan's son was killed in Iraq five years ago. A statement on Sheehan's blog says she and "other like-minded peace activists" want to remind Obama "the body bags aren't taking a vacation."

The Washington Examiner's Byron York gives Sheehan credit for consistency, but thinks "her days are over." He says the anti-war forces that rallied around her when Bush was in office have fallen silent and moved on.

Sheehan and the Obamas will find the Massachusetts resort all decked out for the presidential visit. The New York Times notes they could chill out with an "Obamarita" at Sharkey's Cantina or shop for T-shirts bearing slogans such as "Barackin' the Vineyard."

While the president's vacation will give a boost to the island's economy, one columnist is urging Obama to opt for a "stay-cation." Tracie Powell writes on CQ Politics that with health care reform hanging in the balance, it would be better for Obama to stay home -- even if it's just for the sake of "good public relations."

Why did Bill Clinton Go to Korea and not Hillary?

If you watch this video the answer is simple. They did not want her there.

Pentagon: Congressional Jets Hurt Defense

The Pentagon is criticizing the House of Representative's request to upgrade Congress' air fleet -- and charge the cost to the Defense Department.


"It forces us to take money from things we do need to fund and redirect it for things we don't need," Geoff Morrell, a spokesman for Defense Secretary Robert Gates, told the Wall Street Journal. "And in a time of war, we just can't afford that. The bottom line is, for everything that they appropriate for us above and beyond what we've asked for, it will, at some point require us to find money from programs we do need."


Lawmakers slipped the request into the Pentagon's proposed budget for 2010, insisting that Congress' current fleet of executive jets is old and more expensive to operate that newer, more efficient planes. They also say lawmakers use the jets only 14.5 percent of the time, compared to 44 percent usage by military members.


President Barack Obama sent Congress a Pentagon budget of $640.1 billion, which the House adjusted and scaled back to $636.3 billion. During that process, members requested $550 million to purchase eight passenger jets. Obama originally sought only $220 million to buy four planes.